Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze. Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret.
A: The most abundant isotope of magnesium has 12 neutrons; it is therefore, technically known as magnesium-24. Calculating the number of neutrons in an isotope of any element involves subtracting that element's atomic number from its atomic weight. Magnesium's number is 12, and its weight is just over 24.
Best Answer: you are correct that protons determine the element's identity. Mg-24 and Mg-26 both have 12 protons but the 24 and 26 are the number of protons plus neutrons. Mg-24 has 12 protons and 12 neutrons, while Mg-26 has 12 protons and 14 neutrons. elements that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Mg will always have 12 protons...if you change the number of protons, you change the element. Mg-24 and Mg-26 are two different isotopes of magnesium.